26 Nuclear Plants In Predicted Path Of Hurricane Sandy

Source Fairwinds Energy Education Podcast Here is a summary of two important topics discussed in the October 28, 2012 podcast by Fairewinds Energy Education:

Hurricane Sandy poses a threat to 26 nuclear reactor sites
• the Nuclear Plants can withstand relatively high winds
• storm surge will not likely do much damage to the nuclear power plants themselves
• but some plants will likely suffer loss of off-site power (as happened at Fukushima)
• at that point, the plant will automatically "scram", control rods will go into the cooling pool real quickly and the nuclear chain reaction will stop
• when the power transmission lines are lost, the nuclear power plant needs to reduce power production quickly
• with loss of off-site power, diesel generators must turn on in order to provide the power needed to cool the fue pools
• some plants have 2 diesel generators and some plants have 3 diesel generators
• as the Nuclear plant operates, it requires off-site power to operate the pumps
• when a nuclear power plant shuts down, as much as 5% of the decay heat remains
• diesel generators are required to keep the plant cool
• we have to hope that those diesel generators operate when needed, because that is the last line of defense against meltdown
• when a plant "scrams" that's a sudden shutdown and a severe jolt to the system
• it would be better if operators shutdown the plant ahead of time
• there are 26 nuclear power plants in the area where Hurricane Sandy is likely to hit
• nuclear reactors are not designed to cool the spent fuel pools from the diesel generators
• so, the design of most nuclear plants requires that off-site power be restored quickly in order to keep the spent fuel pools cool
• if the spent fuel pools heat up, tremendous humidity is generated
• the fuel pool building structures are not designed to
• a fuel pool takes time to reach boiling point
• some of the 26 reactor sites have recently refueled, so they have hot fuel rods in their fuel pools and could reach boiling point within a couple of days
• it is likely that off-site power will be lost at quite a few of the 26 sites
• the chance of a diesel generator failing is less than 1 in 100
• so a plant with two generators has a 1 in 10,000 chance of both diesel generators failing

The Fukushima reactors and fuel pools are still dangerous
• there was a very important report from Japan regarding the radiation in the Pacific Ocean
• Bentic organisms that live on the bottom of the ocean floor are not seeing a decline in the amount of radiation
• so the message is that the fish in Japan are still contaminated
• the other, more important conclusion is that radiation must still be leaking into the ocean
• TEPCO is building a wall into the ocean 100 feet deep to prevent leakage into the idea, but that will not be completed until 2014
• the fuel pool will not be completed until 2015
• this is the worst nuclear leak into the ocean in history and continues to leak into the ocean
• assuming that there is no further damage from earthquakes or storms, water management will eventually become a problem
• a football field sized waste water storage area is rapidly filling up